Method of making carbonized fabric.



P. L. HORTON. METHOD OF MAKING GARBONIZED FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED MAB. 4, 1910.

Patented July 5, 1910.

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METHOD OF MAKING- CARBONIZED FABRIC.

963,291. Original application filed August 18,

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, FREDERIG L. HORTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex Massachusetts, have invented and useful Improvements in Making Carbonized Fabric; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This application is a division of my pending application filed August 18, 1909, Serial No. 513,388, .for an improvement in carbonized fabrics and method of and apparatus for producing the same.

The invention forming the subject-matter of the present application has for its object the production of a method bonized fabric in which a woven or other certain new wholly permeated with carbonized matter.

Such a carbonized product may be employed for a great variety of uses; among others it is especially adapted for use as a lining for brake bands for automobile brakes. It may also be used for a fireproof covering for re-hose.

In the drawings: Figure 1 shows in diagram one form of apparatus capable of carrying out my method of making carbonized fabric; and Fig. 2 shows a modified form of carbonizing apparatus.

In carrying out my method a suitable onizing process. Various means may be adopted for treating the fabric. Preferably employ a fibrous material in woven, knit or other fabricated form, so that the carbon compound may be applied in theform of a liquid bath thoroughly to saturate the fabric and permeate the fibers thereof. The fabric treated in this manner may be carbonized in any suitable way, but one of the. most practical and convenient, when a fabric is employed with suitable heat-resisting qualities, is to subject it to a temperature sufli- 0 ciently high to carbonlze the absorbed liquid carbon compound, producing thereby a fabric permeated and coated with a hard, heat and wear resisting carbon having a high co-efiicient of friction.

ile various materials may be employed Specification of Letters Patent.

and State of Methods of Patented July 5, 1910.

1909, Serial No. 513,388. Divided and this application filed March 4,

1910. Serial No. 547,235.

and the process carried out in different ways and by of the invention, I have shown in the drawings one form ofl'apparatus which may be employed for carrying out the process and producing the fabric of the type described.

In order to provide a heat resisting fabric, so that heat may be employed for the car bonizingprocess and the completed fabric, moreover, may present heat resisti qualities to the highest degree, I prefera ly employ a fabric formed of asbestos fiber. Such fabric may be produced by a well-known l proportion (for example 5% by weight) of cotton, the mixed fiber being then treated to the usual steps of spinning and weaving in all substantial respects like the ordinary process of weaving cotton cloth. In producing an asbestos fabric of this kind, preferably a selection is made of the long fibers of the asbestos, since this not only produces a strong fabric, b senting greater flexibility when mesh or texture, and may be woven with or without reinforcing wires or other stiffening members. The asbestos fabric is next treated with a solution of a carbon compound or a liquid or liquefied carbon com pound so that the fabric may be thoroughly impregnated therewith. The invention contemplates the use of such a carbon compound as may be carbonized be employed, being preferably diluted with a suitable quantity of water to cause it better to enter and per meate the fibers of the fabric. The amount of carbonized material deposited in the fabric will depend upon'the extent to which the molasses is diluted; when diluted the more, a less amount of carbonized material is incorporated in the fabric. To produce a serviceable lining for a friction brake, for example, common molasses may be diluted with fifty per cent, by bulk, of water.

The molasses or other carbohydrate employed may be used free from mixture with preferablyz) in order ample 1} of 1%) of sulfur, the latter being.

first dissolved in a suitable solvent, such as a suitable quantity of lye and ammonia. The asbestos fabric, having been thoroughly permeated with the molasses solution as above described, is dried and then subjected to a carbonizing. process, as by heat applied either directly to the fabric from the flame of a torch or other burner, or by submergin the cloth in a heated bath or by other suita le means. A temperature ranging from 700 to( 800 F. has been found to give excellent results, although a wide range of temperature is possible, the time required to carbonize the compound depending not only on the temperature but on the composition and strength of the carbon compound and the thickness or body of the fabric.

Referring to the drawings, I have shown in die ammatic elevation an apparatus adapte to carry out the described process. The fabric 1 is drawn as required from the feed roll 2 and carried slowly through a 'bath of diluted molasses contained within the tank 3. The fabric, which is shown as formed in a continuous strip, passes beneath suitably driven guide rollers in the tank, the tank having a sufiicient extent and the travel of the fabric being such as to cause a thorough saturation of the latter The saturation of the fabric is materially assisted by heating the molasses bath to a temperature preferably slightly less than the boilin pomt and a burner 15 is therefore emp oyed for this purpose. From the tank the fabric strip passes over the (guide roller 5 and thence about other gui e rollers 6 to afford the absorbed liquid opportunity to dry. The strip then 1passes to the carbonizing apparatus, the atter being shown in Fig.1 1 as consisting of a second tank 7 in w ch is provided some suitable liquid, such as linseed oil, which is capable of being raised to a high temperature. Linseed oil when employed also serves the useful purpose of water.- roofing the resultant carbonized fabric. he linseed oil bath is heated to a temperature above 400 F. by a series of underlying burners 8 supplied with gaseous fuel from any suitable source. The fabric strip passes into the bath at one end of the tank, being withdrawn therefrom at the other end.

In Fig. 2, in place of the liquid containing tank 7, I have there shown a tube 9, preferably of metal, through which the fab-'- ric stri 1 is caused to travel. The tube is raise to a hi h temperature by means of the upper and ower burner pipes 10 and so that the fabric eeaaei 11 which are contained within the outer tube 12, the latter preferably having an asbestos lining.

With woven material, if the weave is close or the saturating solution rich with carbon, it may be necessary to break up the hard carbon contained inits meshes if it is desired that the com leted fabric should possess any material e ee of flexibility. For this purpose herein rollers 13 arranged in staggered relation, is caused to pass between have shown a series of steel them in a sinuous path, these acting as breakin rollers to break up the carbon in the me of the fabric and to secure a flexible product. These or their equi alent may or may not be employed, according to the use to which the fa ric is to be put. From the breaking rollers 13, the fabric passes to the winding-on roll or beam 14, preferably driven from any suitable source of ower so as to wind thereon the carbonized abric at a suitably slow rate of s eed. Unless speciallly treated to hproduce exibilit and es ecia when ric y carbonized, t e resu tant abric consists of a hard, definitely formed body partly 'or wholly permeated with carbon. Articles which have been woven or otherwise fabricated into a definite shape and then carbonized as above described or which have been formed into some definite shape after being saturated with the molasses, may be made permanently to retain such shape. As an exam le of the roduction of a predeterminate ormation m the carbonized roduct, I have shown in the apparatus of ig. 1 means consisting of the two steel rollers 16, between which the fabric tape is caused to pass after emerging from the molasses bath and when in a semi+ plastic state. These rollers may be suitably1 shaped to im ress the thin plastic tape wit any desired ormation, such for exam le as one or more grooves or channels lengt wise the tape. These rollers leave a permanent impression in the plastic tape, so that the latter when in the carbo ing apparatus emerges therefrom with the hard and permanent characteristic formation imparted by the rollers.

While ordinarily no difliculty will be experienced in keeping the heat within such limits as to revent carbon when t e tape emerges from the carbonizing apparatus, if it has a tendency immediate y to turn white, thereby indicating oxidation of the carbon, it can be easily remedied by applying to the surface of the emergin tape a coating of molasses, meanwhile ta g care that the temperature of the furnace is reduced.

While I have shown and described one specific form of apparatus, with a single modification thereo the present invention is not limited tothe use of such illustrate the oxidation of the apparatus, as it may be carried out by any other suitable apparatus or devices ca able of performingv the particular steps an operations described in the specification, and more particularly defined in the claims.

I make no claim in this application to the article of manufacture produced by the herein described process, nor to the apparatus used in carrying out such process, as such article of manufacture and apparatus are claimed in my pending application Serial No. 513,388.

Having thus defined the nature and scope of the present invention, what I desire to claim and secure by Letters Patent is 1. The method of producing a carbonized Woven asbestos fabric which consists in 'satu-- rating woven asbestos fabric with a carbohydrate and thereafter carbonizing the compound, substantially as described.

2. The method of producing a carbonized woven asbestos fabric which consists in saturating Woven asbestos fabric with a carbohydrate and thereaftr subjecting the said fabric to a carbonizing heat without excess of air, substantiallyfas described.

3. The method of producing a carbonized Woven asbestos fabric which consists in forming a fabric of woven asbestos, saturating the said fabric with acarbohydrate and subjectingthe said fabric to a carbonizing heat without excess of air, substantially as described.

4. The method of producing a carbonized fabric which consists in impregnating the fabric with a carbon compound, and thereafter immersing the fabric in a bath heated to a carbonizing heat to carbonize the compound, substantially as described.

5. The method of producing a carbonized, water-proof fabric which consists in saturating the fabric with a carbon compound, im-

mersing the same in a Water-proofing bath and subjecting the fabric to heat without excess described.

6. The method of producing a carbonized, water-proof fabric which consists in impregnating the fabric with a carbon compound, and thereafter immersing the treated fabric in a bath of water-proofing material heated to a carbonizing heat, substantially as described.

7. The method of producing a carbonized fabric which consists in impregnating the same with a hard carbon coating and thereafter bending the fabric to render the same flexible, substantially as described.

8.. The method of producing carbonized woven fabric articles having a predetermined shape Which consists in saturating a woven fabric with a carbohydrate solution, imparting the predetermined shape to the saturated fabric and carbonizing the fabric in such shape, substantially as described.

9. The method of producing a fabric permeated with hard wear-resisting carbon, which consists in forming a fabric of asbestos, saturating the fabric with molasses, drying or partially drying the molasses, and immersing the fabric in a bath of linseed oil of air, substantially as a carbonizing heated to a carbonizing heat to carbonize themolasses, substantially as described.

10. The method of producing a carbonized fabric which consists in immersing the fabric in a solution of molasses and sulfur, and thereafter subjecting the treated fabric to a carbonizing heat without excess of air, substantially as described.

FREDERIO L. HORTON.

Witnesses:

ALFRED H. HILDRETH, WARREN G. OGDEN. 

